China White Paper Claims Ownership of Islands Under Japanese Control

Sep. 25, 2012 - 02:41PM
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TAIPEI — The Chinese State Council Information Office has issued a white paper about the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute with Japan. The paper, released Sept. 25, is available in English on the People’s Daily Online website.

The paper, “Diaoyu Dao, An Inherent Territory of China,” said the Japanese-controlled islands are “China’s inherent territory in all historical, geographical and legal terms, and China enjoys indisputable sovereignty.”

According to the paper, the earliest historical Chinese record of the islands can be found in the 1403 book “Voyage with a Tail Wind.” The paper goes into great historical detail about how the islands were first discovered and claimed by imperial China.

“Japan accelerated its invasion and external expansion after the Meiji Restoration” and seized Ryukyu in 1879, now known as the Okinawa prefecture. Japan then set about making “covert moves to seize Diaoyu” by sending fact-finding teams to the islands.

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Japan “secretly ‘included’ Diaoyu Dao in its territory” outlined in the “unequal” Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ceded Taiwan and Diaoyu Dao to Japan, which China was “forced” to sign.

China claims the islands were returned to China after World War II, but the U.S. “arbitrarily included Diaoyu Dao under its trusteeship in the 1950s and ‘returned’ the ‘power of administration’ ” over the islands to Japan in the 1970s.

The paper claims the U.S. decision to hand them over to Japan was a “backroom deal” and a “grave violation of China’s territorial sovereignty.”

The paper also claims the U.S. and Japan have violated a long list of agreements and proclamations made over the years, including the Treaty of San Francisco, Okinawa Reversion Agreement, Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation.